


Transubstantiation Contemplated

by Merfilly



Category: Transformers: Shattered Glass
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Mirror Universe, Pre-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-17
Updated: 2012-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-21 08:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/595677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soundwave receives an old friend and is driven to find a way to help him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transubstantiation Contemplated

"Dude... you look … gray." 

Soundwave's spontaneous reaction to the visit of an old friend was not what he had meant to say, but Ratbat shook his helm at the quick attempt to fumble for an apology.

"I am graying, Soundwave. It seems my Ember is failing, which is why I wished to see you one more time before I leave existence on this plane." The senator followed Soundwave inside, accepting the energon slip he was offered.

"They can't fix it?" Soundwave asked, itching to run his own scans.

"I even offered to downsize to a smaller frame, but they insist that by the end of a deca cycle, my ember will be extinguished without supplemental power." Ratbat made a noise of reluctant acceptance. "I'm not here to talk about me, though. Soundwave, I want to know why you really think that rogue Megatron is right... and if you convince me, I'll do all I can to help you with what time I have left."

Soundwave muttered, then shook his helm. "No way, mech. It's just your ember?"

Ratbat let out an exhalation of impatience. "Nothing can be done!"

"Except supplement your ember?" Soundwave pressed.

"I don't want to exist that way," Ratbat admitted. "A drain on society just to prolong my already lengthy existence?"

"But you're my friend." Soundwave dropped his mask away, letting his deep frown show. "You taught me, you sponsored my posting to the senatorial chambers as an intern..."

"And sometimes, dear Soundwave, you have to learn that letting go is best for your friends." Ratbat took the younger mech's hands in his own. "I cannot be a leech."

Soundwave opened his mouth to speak, but then Ravage came bounding in, leaping for the guest's lap. That earned a chuckle, and the feline mech was all Ratbat could focus on. Soundwave didn't mind, as he watched the two, thinking on Ratbat's problem.

"Your friends are amazing," Ratbat finally said, having spotted Laserbeak up in his nest. "Just the two still?"

"Negatory, and amp that story!" Soundwave said, with a little smile of pride as he flicked a holographic projector toward a blank spot on the table, showing the tiny mech-framed twins he had created. "Rumble... loves to party... and Frenzy... just as good at partying... are my latest. Laserbeak's asked for a companion, but..." The communicator spread his hands wide, flicking static in his fields at his worries. "Megatron's calculations gave me something else to worry on, and Beak's willing to wait."

"Ravage doesn't want one?" Ratbat asked in surprise.

"Kitteh has all the friends," Ravage said with a smug grin on his feline features.

"Hmm, you would, wouldn't you?" Ratbat said, but his tone was distracted. He made himself focus on Soundwave. "Where are your new ones?"

"Staying in Crystal City currently. The prof has a student there he wants to keep an eye on, one that Orion Pax is interested in as well."

"They can be that distant?" the senator questioned.

"Correctamondo, amigo," Soundwave said proudly. "I've got it down, now. They're independent and able to operate without docking for an unspecified period; haven't tested past half a deca cycle."

"That long?" Ratbat's optics took on a shine as he sat fully upright, and Soundwave caught a glimmer of hope radiating in his friend's thinking. He chased it down, and did a double take as he stared at Ratbat.

"You... would you feel free enough?"

"With you as the caretaker?" Ratbat laughed freely and fully. "Soundwave, your anarchy demands that even the little ones you've made since I last saw you have freedom to do as they please. The question, then, falls into two parts. Is it possible, and more importantly, would it stress your systems to provide for another symbiont?"

Soundwave stood up, went and got his largest drafting pad, and started laying out a frame that was based on the Senator's current one, but with true wings instead of dorsal fins, and to scale with his other symbionts. "I think I can make it happen, and I know I can provide for you," Soundwave promised. "Just... be careful, the next few breems, and I'll work it out."

"Deal, my friend," Ratbat said. "Now... talk to me about Megatron while you sketch."

Soundwave found that easy to comply with, providing Megatron's own sound bites and notations, even as he tried to figure out how best to translate such an old mech to a symbiotic frame size. This would be a challenge, but with a friend's existence at stake, Soundwave would not fail.


End file.
